Songs of Yesterday
by millie-mione
Summary: It's been almost twenty years since Severus and his wife divorced. Now, with an estranged reminder in the works, can they patch things up and make a fresh start? Read, and find out. Characters aren't mine.
1. Default Chapter

Harry looked down from his window to see his Aunt Petunia shouting at a blond girl and shoving something into her hand. The girl walked away from her looking sad, as if someone had badly injured her. He saw both women disappear and heard the door slam downstairs. He wasn't sure whether or not his ears were playing tricks on him; because, it sounded like she was crying.

He went to the top of the stairs to see what was going on.

" Are you all right, Aunt Petunia?"

" No! Just leave me alone, please," she said.

" Yes, Aunt Petunia."

" Wait! Come back here. I'd like for you to do something for me before you return to your room."

" Yes?"

" I believe that you have a teacher named Severus Snape?"

" Yes. How did you know? Did he send you a letter for me? I hope that he's not the one who's coming to get me this summer."

" Shut up, and listen to me!"

" What?"

" Don't use that tone with me! I need you to o something, and if it's to be done right, then you must listen and do exactly as I say; do you understand?"

" Yes, but…" he stopped as she raised her hand to silence his speech.

" I need you to owl him with this message. Tell him that his daughter has come to seek him. Also, let him know that I don't wish to see him when they make contact with each other," she said crying into the floor as she clutched what looked like a picture to her chest.

Harry curiously, without thinking grabbed at it, and Petunia slapped his hand.

" Don't you dare touch my picture! It's none of your business."

" I'm sorry."

" Oh, don't apologize. The truth will soon be out anyway."

"What are you talking about?"

" Severus and I were briefly married for about three months before he joined up with that monster that killed your mother. When we divorced, I was pregnant with a little girl. I thought that I would be next when he killed mum and dad, so Vernon and I sent her away to live with an old friend of mine named Mark Blackwood after Diddy was born. He and Elizabeth couldn't have any children. Vernon made me promise to stamp any abnormality in my and Diddy's life out. I also thought that I could do the same thing with you, but look how that turned out.

I've begged Griselda not to try to see him, but that ditzy little brat won't listen to me. Doesn't she know that everything I did was for her safety? Oh, I could've slapped her silly tonight for challenging me as she did!"

" You're a witch?"

" Oh, don't look so surprised. Do you honestly think that anybody can cook such meals and keep a house this clean using natural effort?"

" Now that you mention it, no."

" Vernon allows me to use a spell or two on occasion to further his career. I didn't do it in front of the Masons; because, you were there. I did everything I could to make you feel out of place. Hopefully, you'd yearn so deperately to gain our approval that you'd shun magic."

" Snape spies for the Order now," Hary said.

" No, my dearly deluded one. Severus Snape spies for his own cause. If given the choice between Dumbledore and Voldemort, he'd choose to do away with them both if he thought that he could further his status. He's always looked out for himself. He only married me, because I created a potion that repelled dirt and scuffmarks for three months on surfaces, and a magic company bought it from me for thirty percent of the monthly royalties. His father drank and gambled away the family fortune during his sixth year. I just don't want Griselda to do anything stupid by getting close to him where he can manipulate her and then cruelly discard her thereafter."

" And here I was feeling sorry for him after seeing my dad pick on him."

" You know, that's the only thing I can truly applaud James for. Believe me, whenever James and Sirius picked on the little toad, he had it coming. It was my inability to believe so, which proved to be my undoing, just as it will prove to be my baby's when she goes to see him."

" Don't worry, Aunt Petunia. I'm sure that Griselda knows what she's getting into."

" No, she doesn't! Severus could take her to Voldemort to kill her!"

" Not if I write my friends with the news, and everybody prepares to meet Griselda. He can't do anything if too many people know about her."

" I have to think about it."

" Okay, let me know what you want to do."

Two afternnons later Severus Snape appeared in the living room looking angrily at Petunia.

" What the hell do you mean not telling me that I had a child!"

" It's not like you even gave the first damn about me!"

He raised his hand to slap her when Harry pointed his wand at his him.

" Do it, and die." Harry looked at him as he glared dangerously at Petunia.

" You'll pay for this. Mark my words, darling wife. You'll pay," he said, and then he disapparated.

" Oh my God. He's going to kill my baby!"

Harry hit her with a stunning charm and hurried up the stairs to write Professor Dumbledore. He couldn't let anything happen to her, no matter how he felt about his aunt and uncle. When he sent the letter off with Hedwig, he returned downstairs to find his aunt's unconscious body gone.

Snape waited for Petunia to wake.

" I had every right to know," he said looking hurt.

" No, you didn't. I won't let you hurt her like you did me."

" You didn't understand."

" Well, what was there that I was supposed to understand? Tell me, Severus."

" I was a spy."

" A likely story."

" Believe me, or don't believe me. It's your choice, but I never meant to hurt you. I would have been honorable to you and to my daughter had I known about her."

" Well, now you do know about her, and it pleases me to say that I'm glad that she grew up away from you and me. She knew the happiness that neither of us could give her."

" We can still give it to her. You just have to give me a chance. I'm still willing to do it if you are. Obliviate your husband and son's memories, and come back to me where you and Griselda belong. It's unnatural, this lie that you've led all of these years. We can have the life that we were always meant to have. Just say, 'yes.'"

" I don't know. What about the boy?"

" He has Dumbledore and the others. Together, we can leave and begin anew. Just give me your answer."

Petunia stared blankly out the empty window not sure what move to make next. She knew that whatever she chose; it had better be good for all their sakes.


	2. Familiar Breeze

" No, Severus. I can't. It's not that I don't love you; it's that I want to remain the woman who took your heart with her honesty and belief in loyalty," Petunia said.

"You always knew how to torture me, didn't you?"

" Perhaps, but I do love you, and if we are ever to be happy, we have to do what is right."

" Yes, my mind believes it, but my heart won't accept it. You know, I look at her, and I see what my mother should have been had my father treated her right. I regret making the decision to spy, but I wanted to be to you what James was to Lily."

Petunia grabbed his hands firmly and said, " you were my hero; because, you chose to overcome your feelings of bitterness, and to become someone that I could love. I recall the tales of horrible abuse that you told me, and it made me doubt our choice to pair, but seeing you do those things that were selfless despite the way that others took advantage of you, made me fight those feelings of hesitancy, and march forward to face a life with you. If anyone here is to blame for how this all turned out, it's I. Instead of using your love to learn how to release my inner pangs of bitterness and jealousy toward my family, I used it as a place to hide."

" We both did," he said regretfully.

" I know. Had I for once tried to see something through, we might have had a halfway decent life."

" I could have been more open."

" No. I had to keep begging for something that nobody could give me."

After a few more exchanges, they both fell into a kiss, until Griselda interrupted them by clearing her throat to announce her presence.

" What is it?" Petunia snapped unintentionally.

" Well, I've taken the job here as the Potions assistant."

" What?" both parents shouted looking t her disbelievingly.

" I've taken the job as the assistant Potion's professor."

" Have you taken leave of your senses? It's too dangerous," Severus snarled," you will march you self right back down to that office, and you will tell them that you have decided to withdraw your interest in this position!"

" I will not! I've got a life of my own, and I can do with it what I like!"

" You will do exactly as we tell you, young lady!" Petunia snapped.

" This is my first chance to be near you, and you're pushing me away."

" Oh, very well, stupid! Go and get yourself killed for all I care!"

" Nothing is going to happen to me, mom. I can take care of myself. I know when trouble is about."

" Oh you do, do you? Well, what about all those reports that I used to get about your tomfoolery about Cackle's Academy with that Prunella Feverfew?"

" It's Fenella, and we were always careful."

" Careful? Do you call blowing the roof off the Great Hall careful?"

" Well, no, but I always knew when to stop, though."

" Petunia, you mean to tell me that she was behaving so stupidly, and you never even bothered to contact me for help?"

" Well, you were never there for me; so what could I assume?"

" You could have at least assumed that I was human enough to take an interest in my own daughter."

" Fighting amongst yourselves isn't going to change my mind about anything. I'm staying put," Griselda said before turning her back to them to leave the room.

Severus quickly unsheathed his wand and hit her with the Imperio jinx, and then he bade her to tender a letter of resignation.

" Really, Severus, don't you think that the 'Imperio Curse' was a bit much?"

" No, Petunia; I am going to show you how to parent a child by applying reasonable force to troublesome situations that arise."

Petunia had to laugh. " You sound just like a father."

" Well, that's what I am, her father."


End file.
